WELCOME TO MIDDLE SCHOOL

Grades 5 - 8

The impact of a Congressional education is most apparent in middle school, when the significance of the educational journey becomes clear. Upon entering middle school, students are already appreciating the extraordinary advantages they have at Congressional. They do not take school for granted but rather relish all that is available for them.

Beginning in fifth grade, students change classes throughout the day, benefiting from specialists for each core subject. Throughout the school day, children are challenged, guided, and mentored by exceptional members of the faculty. They are taught to ask good questions and develop life-long intellectual curiosity. Sometimes they are given answers to their inquiries, other times the answers are realized through self-discovery.

OUR CURRICULUM

The measurement of our curriculum's strength is recognized when our graduates place into second or third level world language programs and advanced math classes when starting high school, when they comment that ninth grade is much easier than eighth grade ever was at Congressional School, or note how much better prepared they are than their peers for performance in some of the area's most competitive high schools.

8TH GRADE CAPSTONE PROJECT

The 8th Grade Capstone project is the culmination of a student's academic work at Congressional School. The project is intentional in its overall objective, providing a purpose-based learning opportunity for our 8th grade students. It is a time for our students to find an area of interest, explore deeply, take action, and communicate with the broader Congressional School Community.

BEHIND THE SCENES AT CONGRESSIONAL SCHOOL

MIDDLE SCHOOL FEATURE VIDEO

FINE ARTS

CONGRESSIONAL CHORALE: NATS PARK

ROLLERCOASTERS

Click an image to scroll through current stories around campus and to read their full captions.

Mrs. Weiss' 8th grade Geometry Honors class was tasked with writing pseudo code that could calculate what type of quadrilateral 4 coordinates would create. While the project was overall impressive, Aaron '19 took it to the next level and wrote an entire program in Python rather than pseudo code. And it worked great!

6th graders are finishing their post-apocalyptic story collaboration in English class. Mr. Yassine gave them the first part of a story. Students then randomly selected whether they would continue writing this story from the perspective of the child or the parent in the story. After a couple of days, each student chose a name out of a hat and were partnered up so that each “parent” had a “child.” They then had to combine their stories in a logical way, jumping back and forth from both perspectives, and revising to ensure the entire story fit together coherently.

6th grade has finished Dave Ramsey's “Foundations in Personal Finance” Middle School Edition and have certificates to prove it! 5th grade has finished the first half of the program and will get their certificates next year after they complete the second half!

As a result of digging deeply in to topics around immigration and the refugee crisis, 6th graders have been hard at work designing a sustainable refugee community that meets the short and long term needs of those displaced. Today, students presented their projects to parents and a few visitors from the State Department. Very impressive!

8th grade completed their egg drop designs. Their geometric, egg-saving creations could only have tape or hot glue at the joints, and they were only allowed to use straws and two dixie cups. Students dropped their structures from the balcony to see if their egg safely tucked inside would survive—and most did!

Students and faculty embraced a day of STEM at today's Science Symposium. The day began with visits from three professionals in the science industry (Dr. Leah Lipsky: National Institutes of Health, Mr. Matthew Saks: Airbus, and Dr. Jitendra Joshi: NASA) followed by an afternoon in the gym with students' symposium presentations, which were judged by Dr. Lipsky, Mr. Saks, and Mr. Jason Blondin from Lockheed Martin. In the afternoon, students in Grades 4-8 gathered in the cafeteria for the awards presentation. Congratulations to all the students for doing such an amazing job!

Congratulations to the cast and crew of Into the Woods JR. The show was spectacular! We hope everyone had the pleasure of seeing it last Friday evening. A big thank you to Mr. Bowley, Mrs. Spalletta, and Mrs. Bicksel for their hard work in making this production possible!

Thank you to our student council for organizing our annual student talent show! We had a wonderful mixture of musical performances, comedy, acts, magic tricks, and more. We're proud of all the brave students who went on stage and performed for their peers!

Congratulations for a job well done to our Congressional Chorale! The group preformed the National Anthem this past Saturday at the nationally televised DC United game, and they sounded fantastic!

To close out a sport season, it's our tradition for the 8th grade to face the faculty and staff in a fun, competitive game. This Monday, the 8th grade tried their best but the faculty won by only a few points in their basketball game!

Spring sports are underway—boys and girls lacrosse, girls softball, and co-ed track and field! Hope you can make a game or meet!

One of the 7th grade choice electives right now is "Jam Sesh." Students choose a band name, instruments, a song, and jam together with Ms. Spalletta!

8th graders have partnered up in music class to cover a song of their choosing. Everyone must play guitar and at least one person must sing. Students have been reading chord charts and have been encouraged to truly make it their own!

After presenting their aquatic ecosystems, classmates offered constructive comments and criticism of their delivery. They criticized for things like reading off the poster and rough transitions and gave compliments for things like eye contact and creativity. They were very impressive in their interactions!

It was a privilege to host Ms. Higgins, the Associate Director of Refugee, Asylum, & International Operations for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as a guest speaker. 6th grade students appreciated this great opportunity to deepen their understanding of the U.S. response to refugees and asylees. It was also a great chance to practice listening, note taking, and asking insightful questions!

Let the debates begin! Should police officers wear cameras? Should schools require standardized testing? 8th grade speech and debate class researched, formed arguments, and brought their cases to the class to be debated in front of peers and judges.

We love having guest speakers in our classes to bring knowledge and new perspective to our students. This week it was an honor to welcome Kate and Anna’s grandfather and 18th Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, General T. Michael Moseley, USAF Retired. General Moseley shared his insights with our 6th graders regarding the work he is doing to develop a 21st century model community for displaced persons in Northern Iraq.

During their science series on the nine major phyla of the kingdom animalia, 7th grade students scouted locations around campus for a trail camera. They mapped the campus looking for footprints, antler rubs, and other animal signs.

Ms. Mankar and Ms. Fitzpatrick teamed up to give students an opportunity to combine science research and visual communication. 6th grade students studied climate change in Ms. Mankar’s class, they did research, and then graphed the data. They worked in art class to turn their graphs into artwork that conveys their findings. Finished projects are displayed in the Big School lobby!

On the students' days off this week, our auxiliary program offered optional child care. Preschool through kindergarten spent a fun day of activities, games and craft projects on campus while 1st - 8th grades ventured out to the new St. James Athletic Center and Disney on Ice!

The ability to confidently present to an audience is a quality we strive to foster in our students. 5th grade speech class is learning about verbal and non-verbal techniques. To enhance their learning, they are evaluating speeches recorded from Mr. Bowley's old speech classes, rating the techniques used, and presenting their findings.

Dan Huynh ’15 stopped by our campus last week for a surprise visit. He’s currently a senior at St. Albans School and is now deciding whether he will accept his admission offer to Yale or enter the Naval Academy after graduation.

To build our middle school community, our Student Council organizes 3 middle school hang outs to take place once per trimester. Last Friday night they had their winter "Chill Out."

Students in 4th - 8th grades participated in the National Geographic Bee, and after an impressive first round, 10 students took part in the final school-level competition today. Congratulations to Tate '20 for being our school champion and to Julia '19 for being runner-up!

What better way to apply speed, velocity, and acceleration knowledge than by engineering ramps? Using a marble or hotwheels car, 8th grade students must calculate speed at 4 locations to determine acceleration at any given point.

Organization saves time and stress. Dr. Moore, our Director of Learning Center, met with 5th grade advisories this morning to discuss ways students can become more organized—at home, at school, and on the computer.

Innovation Evening was a fantastic opportunity for parents and students to spend time together while creating, designing, and engineering. Plus, parents got a peek into what innovation looks like around school. Catapults were launching, parachutes were floating, towers were growing, and robots were roaming!

To learn more, ask questions, or schedule a tour for our Middle School program for your fifth through eighth grade child, please contact: